News Currents

By
Lawrence J. Goodrich /
November 30, 1989

ABORTION The United States Supreme Court Nov. 29 heard arguments in cases from Ohio and Minnesota dealing with the rights of a teenager to get an abortion without telling her parents. In Canada, Parliament approved in principle Nov. 28 a measure that would make abortion a criminal offense unless a doctor agrees that a woman's physical, mental, or psychological health is endangered. A final vote will take place in the next few weeks.

The Washington Post said Nov. 29 that a classified Pentagon study concludes that the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact have been incapable for several years of launching a quick attack against the West. But the study revealed that during the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia, the USSR put its battlefield nuclear forces on a 10-minute alert. President Bush signed a $938 million three-year aid package for Poland and Hungary Nov 28. The Energy Department said Nov. 28 it expects a seven-year delay in opening the nation's first nuclear-waste dump site. The site would not open until 2010, Deputy Energy Secretary W. Henson Moore said. He also said the department would sue the state of Nevada if it does not issue permits for work on the site to begin within 30 days.

In New Delhi, Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and his Cabinet resigned Nov. 29 following the Congress (I) Party's loss of its majority in parliamentary elections. The opposition National Front coalition is pursuing efforts to secure enough support to form a minority government. A South Korean newspaper said Nov. 29 that the Soviet Union has agreed to set up consul-level ties with Seoul.

MIDEAST

At press time, Syrian forces and Lebanese army troops under Christian Gen. Michel Aoun were poised for battle following the Lebanese Cabinet's appointment of a new army commander. New President Elias Hrawi, who has Syrian backing, has threatened military action if General Aoun does not leave the presidential palace. Oil prices fell Nov. 28 after OPEC failed to reach an agreement curtailing production. OPEC raised its production level, but could not get the United Arab Emirates to accept a national quota.

LATIN AMERICA

The government of Guatemala offered Nov. 28 to host next month's Central American summit, originally scheduled for Managua, Nicaragua. El Salvador is refusing to attend because of Nicaraguan arms shipments to Salvadoran rebels. In San Salvador, gunmen killed the conservative former chief justice of the Supreme Court, Francisco Jos'e Guerrero. Meanwhile, heavy fighting was reported between army troops and leftist rebels in suburbs north of the capital. Two Panamanian opposition figures back from Washington were interrogated by Panamanian intelligence officers for 21 hours before being released.